Meine Seele ist eine Schlange
by RaeynnBeau
Summary: "My Soul is a Serpent" ... Every time Midou Ban taps into the power of Asclepius and channels it through his right arm, he shortens his lifespan a little ... But what exactly are the ramifications of that? What does Maria Noches want to hire the GetBackers for? And what does all of this have to do with the RaiTei [Lightning Emperor]? Rated K for eventual violence.


Chapter title means "The Darkness"

**Die Dunkelheit**

"Oh booooyysss!" Ban sighed as soon as he heard Hevn's voice, while Ginji's head immediately snapped up. Where there was Hevn, there was a job - and a job from Tits McGee (1) always meant trouble.

"Hevn-san! Do you have a job for us!?" Ban ignored them as they started chattering away and instead stared into his coffee mug intently - he wasn't in the mood for pleasantries. He was honestly in the mood to be alone; he'd been feeling that way more and more lately. It bothered him because it was a familiar feeling that he hadn't had in a long time ... And it wasn't one that he was particularly nostalgic for.

"Better be high paying, or we ain't interested," he interjected, not caring about what she had been saying previous to his input, and unless she agreed that it would be, then he didn't care what she said after it either. As predicted, Ginji immediately piped in with something about not having any jobs lately so they needed whatever it was, but Ban really couldn't have cared less. Honestly he was having a hard time caring about much lately, to tell the truth. Hevn, however, was quite used to Ban's antics, and didn't skip a beat as she said,

"You two happen to be in luck; not only did I bring you a great job, but the _pay_ is great too!" Slowly, Ban opened one eye to look at her, but he didn't take his head off of his hand, which was propped up on the table with his elbow, and his expression was little better than bored to death.

"And how much of that 'great pay' are we going to get to take home after you take your 'cut'?" it was a fair question; sometimes she tried to get half or better of what they were compensated, and then what in the hell was the point of doing the job? She made a face at him and put her hands on her hips, leaning forward and down so she was closer to eye level - or rather, more likely, so that her chest was smack in the center of the brunet's vision. Which only served to bring a question to mind as he recalled pretty much all of the times Hevn had brought them work after their last trip to Infinity Fortress. Which had ended in his face getting beaten in by one Kurusu Masaki ... "And, by the way, where's Scruffy? Ain't he usually attached to your hip nowadays?"

"Why can't you ever call anyone by their names!?" was her retort as she stood up and crossed her arms, probably doing something like pouting, but Ban didn't glance up to check. "Fine! If you don't want the job I can find someone else to do it - maybe I'll look up Shido-"

"Whatever; you want to hire the Ape Man be my guest," the brunet stood from where he was sitting at the booth and headed towards the door. "I'm not interested anyway."

"Hey wait! Ban-cha-" _SLAM_; Ginji was sharply cut off as the front door of the Honky Tonk closed so hard the cups on the counter vibrated slightly. Unsurprisingly, everyone in the shop stared at the door the teenager had just left through, and surprisingly, the glass stayed completely intact. They had all been holding their collective breath for a few seconds to see if the pane would completely fall out of the threshold ...

"What's wrong with him ...?" Hevn asked with a frown, looking at Ginji for an explanation, "usually mentioning Shido-san gets him all worked up to take any case ..." The blond wasn't looking at Hevn though; his brow was furrowed, and he was looking at the door Ban had slammed, not exactly a worried expression on his face; it was more along the lines of thoughtful ... But, when he realized he was being questioned, he immediately scrambled for an answer.

"Ah; don't worry about it Hevn-san ... Ban's just been in a bad mood the past few days ..." Ginji attempted to cover for his partner, waving his hands in the air as if that would dissipate the tension that had accumulated in the room from Ban's abrupt departure. "Tell me about the job - I'm sure I can get Ban-chan to do it!"

* * *

Midou Ban shoved his hands deeper into his pockets; he hadn't really meant to storm out like that. He just wasn't in the mood to be around all of those people ... In fact he was starting to like being in the company of anyone less and less; it reminded him of the time after he'd run away before he'd met Yamato and Himiko. He'd been alone then; but more than that he had _avoided _human contact if at all possible - and normally it was. The brunet would have done anything to survive at that time, but then, being a young kid not used to hanging out alone on the streets had pushed him into a lot of things he didn't really feel like repeating ...

That said, he had also been the culprit of a few things that the streets _didn't_ push him to.

If he hadn't been taken in by those two, Yamato and Himiko, he honestly wasn't sure what would have happened to him; the dark part of his heart had been strong then. It still was now, but he could control it ... In fact, he had it shoved so far down on such a regular basis that if he wasn't fighting, the dark, _evil_ part of him barely showed up at all. That was the face he'd shown Ginji time and time again; it was the face he showed the people at the Honky Tonk, Himiko, Paul ... The face he'd come to want people to see if they weren't on the opposite end of the playing field as him.

_Come now Ophiuchus (2)... Fear does not suit you ..._

Gritting his teeth, Ban hunched his back to the wind that picked up, and forced himself to imagine that that was what had whispered in his ear just then - the wind, and nothing more. Staring straight ahead through the small purple lenses of his sunglasses, there were few people on the street that he could see; but then, that suited him just fine. If he avoided people, not only would he be left alone, but he wouldn't _hurt_ anyone ... Whether he meant to do it or not. Whether he _wanted_ to do it or not.

Which was the part that shook him a little. The 'wanting' part.

It was a sort of ... craving, not unlike when it had been too long since he'd had his last cigarette, and it occasionally ... welled up inside of him when he had been younger in the middle of confrontations. This compulsion to _hurt_ people - for no other reason than he wanted to do it. Almost like there was a voice telling him to; in fact most of the time it sounded like there was. Ban was sure it was his mind coming up with some way to express his own devilish, carnal urges; it was irritating, to be sure and sometimes ... ... Sometimes it was downright impossible to ignore, especially in the heat of battle.

He had been doing it for a long time though; since he'd started being a plunderer, and afterwards - when he'd met Ginji he'd continued to push it down accordingly ... And it was alright; he had been alright. But the question was ... Was he _still _alright?

That was a question he was having a harder and harder time answering every day.

Standing in front of the Subaru 360 they'd inherited from the second generation GetBackers, he had no idea how he'd gotten there. As he stood there though, he glanced over the top of his glasses at his reflection in the window and couldn't help sneering at himself before he dug the key out to unlock it and sat down in the too-hot space that had been baking in the sun for the past few hours. Closing the door and putting his hands on the wheel, he sighed, slowly setting his forehead against it.

How long could he go on hiding the monster that he knew he was?

* * *

_Look at those people walking by … How simple it would be to completely end them all. With a thought – no; not even a thought. A gesture that none of them would even see … I could tear their heads off without so much as a— _

"—n-chan? Hey, Ban-chan!"

"Huh?" the brunet was shaken from his trance by his partner's voice, and blinking a few times, he realized he had been staring so hard out the car window that his eyes hurt. Stretching in an exaggerated fashion, he acted as if he had been sleeping – since he'd been facing away from the dumb blond, it was likely Ginji would believe he had been napping - though to be fair, he wasn't sure when his partner had gotten into the car, because apparently the passenger side door opening and closing hadn't gotten his attention.

"Ginji ... What?" he complained, only marginally resisting the urge to whack his partner in the head for bugging him; it would've been mostly for show anyway. Putting a hand to his forehead, he pressed at his eyes; how long had he been staring like that? It was twilight now, verging on night, and it looked like the GetBackers were once again spending the night in the beat up Subaru 360 that they called home. As per usual the car was parked near the fountain, where they could usually be found loitering at this hour of the day if they weren't in the Honky Tonk.

"Hey, Ban-chan…? What's wrong? You haven't been yourself lately ..." brown eyes were a bit more serious than they had seemed a moment before, and at first Ban didn't answer. Leave it to his partner to know something was up, even if he was trying his damnedest not to show any signs of it. Deciding to brush him off, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

"Nothing – except you woke me up from a perfectly good nap," he grumbled as he set one between his lips and fished out his lighter. Lighting it, he took a half drag so the flame would catch and removed it from his lips with his left hand, blowing the smoke out of the slightly open car window after setting his lighter down. There were so many people wandering past the car, not paying them any mind - children, their parents, friends, lovers ... _All such fragile lives; so easy to snuff out …_

"Ban-chan … your hand's twitching." Ginji's voice caught his attention again, and he blinked at his partner, who was both staring intently at and pointing to his right arm. And true to the words, when he looked to where he'd laid his right arm across his lap, the fingers of that hand were doing a weird alternating twitching, almost grabbing motion.

"I need some air," he announced so suddenly that his partner jumped, though Ban ignored it as he put the cigarette between his lips and purposely used his right hand to open the door so that it would stop moving of it's own accord. "I'll be back," was the only explanation he gave before exiting the vehicle and closing the door behind him, ignoring his partner's protests.

It had been happening more frequently - ever since the time they'd spent in Infinity Tower. He'd been managing to stave it off for the most part, but it was becoming more and more pronounced as time passed.

But then, that was the danger of using his cursed birthright, wasn't it?

_Goddamned arm,_ he thought, looking at his right hand with disgust as he walked. He was dying; at least, in a way he was. It wouldn't be that long before any trace of him ceased to exist ... Or at least, he would think that if he wasn't a fighter. And if there was one thing that Midou Ban was born as, then it was certainly that - he'd practically come out of the womb fighting. But then, how much did that really matter in the long run? _Eventually_ it would happen; he'd be forced to give in, kicking and screaming as the case may be. He didn't believe in destiny or any of that crap - but it was different when he could undeniably _feel _something under his skin, laying in wait. Festering.

Ban's footsteps echoed as he walked down an empty alleyway - he had no idea where he was or how far he'd walked; the brunet hadn't been paying attention. Somehow though, the teenager wasn't surprised when he stopped walking and looked up to see he was on the bridge - the one that looked straight across onto the Infinite Fortress. He still couldn't remember everything that had happened there ... But he did know that he'd used this cursed arm too much.

And that he was spiraling ever closer to a fate most would say is worse than death.

Another drag, a flick of ashes, and blue eyes were gazing out over that hell hole with an expression of vaguely contemptuous contemplation. Whatever had gone on, it didn't matter now, but it must've been important, or he wouldn't have done what he knew he must have. Pushing up the purple lenses out of habit, he paused and looked at that right hand ... And couldn't help wondering how long he had left.

"Ban-chan!" Thundering footsteps approached quickly from behind him, and Ban just stayed where he was; it wasn't like the brunet was trying to run away from his partner or anything, he was just ... Trying to run away. "Ban-chan, tell me what's going on!" As soon as he got to the brunet, Ginji started talking, as if somehow his words if nothing else would keep Ban rooted to the spot. Blue eyes continued to gaze at Infinity Fortress, not sparing a glance for the Ginji.

"Nothing ... Did Hevn tell you about that job, Shibireunagi?"(3) he asked the first thing that came to mind; if Ginji had accepted the job, and it was likely that he did, then that was one more distraction he could throw at the blond to keep Ginji off of his tail. And the more distractions he gave his partner, the less likely he'd be to realize that maybe something really was wrong with Ban ... Because he couldn't tell him. At least not now he couldn't, not like this - if he ever could, that is.

"Huh?" brown eyes looked at Ban in confusion for a long moment before Ginji let out a breath that Ban recognized as him relenting. That was something he could always count on with his partner; if he truly didn't want to talk about something, then Ginji trusted him enough to let it be and didn't pry. "... ... Yeah, she did. You want to hear about it ...?"

He just sincerely hoped that that trust wasn't terribly, terribly misplaced.

Ban shrugged a shoulder, but cocked his head to the side slightly as he took another long drag from his cigarette; he was listening, at the very least, whether he wanted to hear about the job or not. Ginji walked the rest of the distance over to the railing of the bridge, leaning on it with his elbows and bracing one of his feet behind him comfortably. It was a while before he spoke, but what he said did serve to catch the brunet's attention.

"Well ... first off, you should probably know ... The client is Maria Noches." (4)

**Tsu zu ku ...**

**(To Be Continued)**

Footnotes:

1 - in the manga he basically calls Hevn slang for breasts instead of using her name a lot of the time; it's something like "boobs" or "jugs"; this is just my take on that nickname.

2 - Ophiuchus is the Serpent Bearer.

3 - Shibireunagi means "Electric Eel"; he calls Ginji this in both the anime and the manga. x3

4 - important character from the manga that never shows up in the anime, unfortunately.


End file.
